Ok, I guess I have to admit it. I like to think of myself as a normal, well-adjusted guy. But the truth is becoming apparent. I'm a track geek. On a beautiful weekend in Chicago, with tons of fun events going on all over town, I chose to drive five hours to Des Moines, Iowa to watch the U.S. Track and Field Championships last weekend.

And I had a blast! This is the second time my alma mater, Drake University, has hosted these championships. It's one of the few places in the country where they have a good supply of knowlegable track fans. They are the people who can really appreciate that 17 year old Mary Cain ran an incredible race to finish the 1500 meters an eyelash behind the winner, Treniere Moser, to qualify for Moscow.

Or that three Men ran 1:43 and change in the 800 meters, with Olympian Duane Solomon beating five time champ Nick Symonds. This is how big a track geek I am: One of the highlights of my weekend was spotting Symonds on his cool down run with an attractive female runner on University Avenue after the meet!

Drake has sold out the final day of the Drake Relays for many decades. It is a great meet showcasing some great athletes ranging from high school age to college, to some of the feature races with world class runners and field athletes. But it's not the U.S. Championships.

The USATF championships is an opportunity to see the very best runners, jumpers, and throwers in the country competing for a chance to represent the U.S. in the world championships in Moscow later this summer. Every race features the best this country has to offer. And if I miss anything live, I set my DVR to record the nationally televised broadcast.

Trust me. It's exciting. So what I can't understand, is why the stadium isn't sold out! It was a little less than half full. Why is it broadcast on a hard-to-find cable channel? With the explosion of popularity in this country for road races, why are the country's best runners competing in relative obscurity compared to other professional sports?

It's a long-term issue that people much smarter than I have been working on for years. They haven't found an answer yet. But I do know this. Drake does an awesome job of hosting a big track meet like this. The University of Oregon has a near lock on hosting the Olympic trials every four years. But Drake is bidding for it, and aside from my loyalty to my alma mater, I hope they get it for the good of the sport. It's nice to expose the middle of the country to such exciting athletes, rather than continue going to the West Coast every four years.

Several of my former Drake track teammates and I spent the weekend reliving our glory days watching the meet. None of us was ever close to running in a national championship meet. But there are hundreds of thousands of runners and former runners like us around. Hopefully they will rediscover the sport as fans, and support it.

Race Organizers call it the 'Happiest 5k on the Planet'. Oh, except it's not really a race. I asked my friend who ran Chicago's version of the 'Color Run' Sunday about her finishing time. She said she didn't know because she didn't wear her watch. She didn't want to get paint on it!

There's no official clock either. They call this an untimed event, which includes about 60% first time 5k runners. My friend was with a group of other experienced runners who are part of the Elmhurst Running Club. They are used to going to races where they line up at the start, take off and run hard to the finish.

Not this one. At every kilometer mark, they get sprayed with a different color paint, in a powdery form. That's the point. You see the white shirts they wore at the begining of the run. By the end, they are filled with a rainbow of colors. Not to mention faces, hands, and hair.

And they love it. My friend said she went to the race with relatively low expectations, and was pleasantly surprised to find it was one of the most fun running experiences she could recall. It was a bonding experience for the group she was with. They all laughed, smiled, and went to breakfast still sporting the various colors they accumulated along the route.

I have to admit, I'm pretty much an 'old school' runner who likes to race. I don't feel like I need rock bands, paint guns, or obstacles along the way to enhance my race experience. But I am also apparently in the minority. These races are exploding in popularity. The Color run series boasts of being the largest race series in the country now, surpassing the Rock-N-Roll marathon races. The Mud runs, obstacle course runs and any number of other twists on basic running are the fastest growing segment of a sport that is continuing rapid overall growth.It makes me wonder about the concerns we hear constantly about the US becoming a country full of overweight, out-of-shape, sedentary people. Maybe all they are missing is the opportunity to have some fun.

The reality is that I'm going to run either way because I developed a love for the sport as a child. But if it takes music, or paint, or mud to get others to get out and move a little, that's great. Whatever it takes!

Early June can be a terribly difficult time to run a race in Chicago. A couple years ago, when I ran the 13.1 race along the south shore, I was among those whose finish was unofficial after they cancelled it after an hour and a half because of extreme heat. One runner, tragically, died during the race. I remember being relieved to get to the finish after a pretty slow run myself. A friend and I running together realized the heat was going to make a good time impossible, so we opted to take it easy and walk through the water stops.

This year's race was the complete opposite. We could hardly have had better weather. It was in the mid 60's with no wind and clear skies. I was feeling a little beat up and was prepared to approach the race as a good training run. But as I arrived and evaluated the weather, I realized we don't get many days like this and you have to take advantage!

Once again, I was running with a friend. We started out at 7:40 pace and quickly sped up about ten or fifteen seconds per mile. The race offers a beautiful, scenic, flat course mostly on the lakefront path heading north from the South Shore Cultural center. This year, rather than walking through the water stops, I ran through many of them without even getting any liquid. It turns out that's not really a good idea. In speaking with paramedics afterward, I learned that's actually a problem for them. When the temperatures are mild, many runners fail to drink enough liquids and can have issues along the course.

Anyway, I was running pretty well, keeping a 7:30 pace through about ten miles. That's when my natural clumsiness reared it's ugly head. I tripped and suddenly found myself diving toward the asphalt. I managed to break my fall with my hands and elbows, but not without a few nasty scrapes and cuts. I was a little stunned. So I cursed myself, got up, dusted myself off, walked about 50 yards. Then I got going again.

I figure it cost me a minute or so on my time. That's significant only because I managed to finish strong, and if I could get that minute back, I would have hit my goal time! As it was I ran 1:41:18. I was pleased with the effort, and the fact that I was able to find a bandaid from the paramedics on duty afterward!

I was also pleased with the SPIRA shoes I ran in. It was kind of an experiment to test out new shoes in a race, but they felt good and I was happy with the way I ran in them. And, no, they were not responsible for my fall!

Last week I offered a quiz and drawing, with the winner getting a pair of new SPIRA shoes to try out. I recieved several correct entries, and chose the winner by pulling a name out of a hat.

I walked around the newsroom and found Ron Magers with a few spare seconds, so I recruited him to pull a name from the hat I found in my drawer. I wanted to make this a contest that was completely fair, and the fairest journalist I know is Ron. Given that several of the entrants are friends of mine, I wanted to make sure they remained friends after this!

Just to make matters even more complicated from a personal perspective was the fact that one of the entrants with all the correct answers is the mother of my children. She happens to be a runner, a nice lady, and apparently a follower of my blog. I admit I wrote her name on a slightly smaller piece of paper (hoping to avoid this dilemma) but wouldn't you know it, that's the name Ron pulled. So congratulations Christine Bachman. I'm sure you will enjoy the new SPIRA shoes!

Thank you to the others who entered. Please try again!

Meantime, I am now half-way through my plan to run a half marathon every month this year. So far, this makes 7 half marathon races in 6 months. The 13.1 race was the fourth best time of the year, but it was the only one in which I fell! Maybe I need a break. My next planned half marathon isn't until the Rock-N-Roll half in late July.

Contest alert! Read to the end for a chance to win a pair of Spira running shoes!

It only feels like it occasionally right now, but as the calendar turned to June over the weekend. As I ran the trail at Waterfall Glen, I realized that it is just about that time. You know, marathon training time. It's when the cars will be parked up and down the street for a half mile down from the entrance to the parking lot on Saturday mornings at Waterfall Glen. It's when you won't be able to get around the huge pace groups trotting along the Lakefront path in Chicago. And it's when all the breakfast spots near the path will be filled with sweaty runners by 9:30 every saturday morning for the rest of the summer!

The year is flying by. It's just a week removed from my traditional start of the summer race, the Soldier Field 10 miler, which had a record number of runners. I love it! We runners are taking over! Seriously. The interest and demand surrounding the Bank of America Chicago marathon has been well-documented. And the growth and success of other area marathons confirms that this marathon thing seems to be catching on! I would expect the training groups will be bigger, more numerous, and better than ever this year.

That enthusiasm is contagious. It's what convinced me to run Chicago last fall, and it ended up being a really nice running experience. At this point this year, a marathon is not in my plans. Right now, I'm continuing my quest to run a half marathon for every month of the year. This weekend will mark my seventh of the year at the 13.1 race.

It also might serve as a bit of an experiment. I'm thinking of running in new shoes that I'm giving a try. I wrote a couples weeks ago about how I'd always thought it would be fun to be one of those 'shoe testers' for Runner's World magazine. Well, it's starting to come true. The latest entry is from Spira, which makes several lightweight training and racing shoes.

I've run a few times in them, and really like the fit, and the soft yet sturdy feel of them. Their trick is actual springs inside the shoe that provide the return after you land. There is one in the heel, and two in the forefoot.

It makes sense. The shoe companies have tried air pockets, water, and lots of variations of foam and rubber among other things. Why not steel springs? Spira claims they provide more 'return' after you land, propelling you forward. They have the advantage of being much more durable than most other materials. They won't wear out, so mileage won't be a factor in when you have to replace them.

It's a small company, that doesn't endorse athletes, but they say quite a few top athletes have worn their shoes while winning races. Here is a link to their website: http://www.spira.com/

And here is your chance to try out a pair free. Spira is offering a pair to one of my Runningnewsguy.com readers. All you need to do is provide correct answers to my three quiz questions, and I will draw the winning name from all the correct entries I receive by Saturday, June 6th at noon.

So here goes.....

1. What brand of running shoes did Nike Chairman Phil Knight sell before starting his own company?